Recently, Mother Nature gave an unexpected gift to homeowners in the Midwest as a wave of spring showers helped green numerous lawns, brown and dormant from the winter chill.

Yet for many homeowners, the joy of a green lawn soon fades when you realize what the strong winds, snow removal efforts and ice-melting salt has done to your front yard.

In an effort to help you upgrade your home’s curb appeal, I present you with five professional landscaping tips.

Landscaping Bricks

Landscaping bricks have many uses in regards to outdoor décor. Some homeowners prefer to use landscaping bricks to create an accentuated walking path to their home, while others prefer to stack the bricks to build a formal patio.

Personally, I prefer creating circular barriers around trees, shrubs and plants with landscaping bricks to contain and separate the planting soil and mulch from the surrounding grass.

Depending on the size and type of project, you may want to consider hiring a contractor to ensure the project is done correctly and won’t require constant repair and upkeep.

Adding mulch to your outdoor décor not only insulates the soil around plants and flowers, it also adds a touch of personality to your lawn as mulch is available in numerous colors. You can coordinate the color of your home with the mulch color you choose or simply accent the trees or shrubs on your front lawn with shredded wood mulch.

Mulch mimics leaf cover found on the forest floor and its uses include:

Suppressing weed growth

Reducing erosion

Providing nutrients

Aiding seed germination

While mulch is available in various materials, popular brands sell 20-pound bags of mulch for under $10.

Flowers and Plants

There are thousands of types of flowers that all capture and embody the pleasure, perfection and beauty of nature.

Flowers inspire happy feelings, and many varieties are quite inexpensive. With this being said, it’s no surprise that flowers are the lawn accent of choice for many homeowners throughout the world.

Believe it or not, some homeowners opt for flowering lawns (also known as no-mow lawns) in place of grass.

Weather you decide to go big with an elaborate and colorful flower presentation, or take a simplistic approach with a few uniform color flowers lining your lawn’s edge, flowers and plants will definitely brighten up your home’s appearance.

Hardscape

In terms of landscaping, hardscape is the practice of organizing, cleaning, and shaping up the paved areas such as streets and sidewalks.

If you live in a big or highly populated city like New York, chances are there aren’t many sprawling green lawns in your area. In this event, you can upgrade the area in front of your residence through hardscaping.

Upgrading your fences, patio, landscaping rocks, and walkways are a few of the ways you can hardscape your home. Hardscaping can provide the final touches you need to complete your lawn upgrade.

Replace or refresh home address numbers

Do you live in a home where the address is hard to read or not illuminated at night? Upgrading your home address numbers is a DIY project that can cost under $15 in most cases.

It’s a nuisance to your houseguests and prospective home buyers (if your home is on the market) to search continually and unsuccessfully for a home address that seems to be created with ten-point font.

There are many ways you can display your house number: painting it on the curb or the rise of a stair on your front porch, inlaying in a stained-glass window, attaching decorative numbers to your façade, displaying a customized lawn sculpture, or simply putting fresh stickers on your mailbox.

Use some of the tips listed above and you may unlock your front yard’s full potential!

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